Friday 29 November 2013 14.09 EST
First published on Friday 29 November 2013 14.09 EST

Daryl Jacob's place aboard one of the favourites for Saturday's Hennessy Gold Cup is secure after he cut short another good day's work here on Friday to rest a sore shoulder before the weekend's big race. Timmy Murphy's chance of riding Our Father, another of the major contenders, remains unclear, however, after he was taken to hospital in unusual circumstances during the afternoon.

Murphy rode the 9-1 chance Upsilon Bleu to finish fourth in the Bet365 Open Handicap Chase and returned to unsaddle as normal. However, he was later taken to hospital with a suspected dislocation of his shoulder.

One racecourse rumour suggested that Murphy had been involved in a weighing-room altercation with a fellow jockey as a result of an incident during the race. Paul Struthers, the chief executive of the Jockeys' Association, was here but declined to comment on rumours of a fight, as news of Murphy's unexpected injury started to emerge.

Murphy, 39, is one of jump racing's senior riders, and a Grand National winner in 2008 aboard Comply Or Die, who was trained, like Our Father, by David Pipe. Earlier in his career, however, Murphy's career suffered a number of significant setbacks as a result of problems with alcohol and in 2002 he was sent to prison for six months for indecent assault following a drink-fuelled incident on a plane.

Pipe, who was at Newbury's bloodstock sales on Friday evening, could confirm only that he was aware that Murphy had been taken to hospital and that no decision would be made about the ride on Our Father until the jockey's situation had been clarified. "If he's ruled out, I'll have to speak to the owners," Pipe said. "Tom [Scudamore, Pipe's stable jockey] is riding one [Terminal] for Willie Mullins, so we'll have to see."

A shoulder injury has also been a problem for Jacob this season, his first as the stable jockey to the powerful Paul Nicholls yard, and he gave up three rides at the end of the card on Friday as he was "very sore" after a fall here the previous afternoon.

By that stage, however, he already had a double to his name, including a comfortable success on Wonderful Charm in the Grade Two Berkshire Novice Chase.

Jacob is booked to ride Rocky Creek, one of the market leaders, in the Hennessy. With 21 runners due to line up for one of the season's most historic events, it will bear no resemblance to Friday's novice chase, which followed the pattern for similar events in recent weeks with only four starters. Wonderful Charm's straightforward success can only be a further boost for Jacob's confidence, whose season has now yielded 37 winners from 158 rides, a strike rate of nearly 24%.

Wonderful Charm was a Grade Two winner over hurdles last season and then lined up for the World Hurdle at Cheltenham. He could finish only eighth at the Festival but two wins in his two races over fences this season saw him start odds-on at 8-11. Tanerko Emery, his only significant rival according to the market, fell early on the final circuit and, though Up To Something, the outsider of the field, was still in with a chance at the final fence, Wonderful Charm jumped it well and eased into a decisive lead soon afterwards.

The Jewson Novice Chase over two and a half miles, which will be a Grade One for the first time this season, appears to be the obvious target for Wonderful Charm at the Festival in March. He is top-priced at 12-1 for the opening race on the third day of the meeting, behind only Champagne Fever, last year's Supreme Novice Hurdle winner, who could well run in the Arkle Trophy instead.

"It's a great privilege to have a horse of this quality," Robin Geffen, Wonderful Charm's owner, said. "He had a wind operation after the Persian War [Hurdle at Chepstow], and Paul doesn't send horses to the World Hurdle lightly but his breathing was all wrong.

"He's had a second breathing op and look at him. He's won three on the trot and he's getting better as he goes. I'd like to see him do the Jewson and go to Aintree as well. I think he'd like Aintree.

"Since I was so high I've wanted to win a race at the Festival and my gut feeling at the moment is that the Jewson would be perfect for him. He's got a lot of speed and two and a half miles looks like his trip for the moment."

Jacob's first winner of the day was even more slick than the second, as Calipto played with his field in the opening juvenile hurdle, a race that is often an early target for potential Triumph Hurdle candidates from the leading yards.

Nicky Henderson, Alan King and Harry Fry all saddled runners, but Calipto looked like a long odds-on chance rather than a 5-2 joint-favourite throughout the final circuit and Jacob was able to cruise up to the lead approaching the final flight on the way to a three-and-a-quarter length success. He is now top-priced at 20-1 for the Triumph with Hills and Paddy Power.

"At home, he's the best juvenile I've got," Nicholls said. "I loved him when I saw him before he had run in France, then he was second the next day at Auteuil and we were able to buy him.

"That was the best juvenile [hurdle] we've had this season, but I won't be rushing him. He could run at Cheltenham in January and he'll have an entry in the Triumph, but he could be one we'll take back to valuable races in France as well."

Robbie McNamara will miss the Hennessy ride on Lord Windermere, last season's RSA Chase winner, after breaking his collarbone in a fall while schooling at Dermot Weld's yard on Friday morning. Dougie Costello will take the ride on Jim Culloty's chaser, who will attempt to emulate last year's winner Bobs Worth by adding the Hennessy to the RSA.

Stephen Higgins, Newbury's managing director, said on Friday that complaints from racegoers about a new dress code at the course are a "storm in a teacup".

A number of racegoers have reported being barred from Newbury's Members' Enclosure over the first two days of the Hennessy meeting, mostly because they were either wearing jeans or not wearing a tie.

"We've been launching this softly for three months now, via the website, and various other channels, so we're not springing this on people all of a sudden," Higgins told the Racing Post. "From our point of view, this is a storm in a tea cup and I'd much rather you guys were talking about the quality racing and excellent prize-money on offer during these three days."